Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control device, and more particularly to a vehicle control device for performing a control for braking a vehicle in which the device is used so as to avoid a collision of the vehicle with an object (target article) which is present ahead.
Description of Related Art
Conventionally, proposals have been made on a technique for performing a control so that a vehicle may be applied with a braking effort automatically (in other words, automatic braking) in order to avoid a collision of the vehicle with an object which is present ahead. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2005-138748A) discloses a technique wherein, when a vehicle is steered so that it crosses an opposite traffic lane, a threshold Value for initiating the automatic braking is changed from a normal threshold value so that the automatic braking may not be applied or made difficult to be applied to thereby prevent the own vehicle from being decelerated or stopped in the opposite traffic lane while the own vehicle is crossing the opposite traffic lane. In addition, for example, Patent Document 2 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2010-132030A) discloses a technique wherein, in a case where a vehicle is being controlled to make a turn in a direction in which the vehicle crosses an opposite traffic lane, but there is a high risk of a collision with another vehicle rapidly approaching on the opposite traffic lane, application of such automatic braking is restrained or made inactive when a passenger is sitting on a front, side seat so that the passenger on the front, side seat may be protected from the possible collision of the vehicle with the rapidly approaching vehicle, and the automatic braking is surely applied when there is no passenger on the front, side seat to avoid the collision of the vehicle with the rapidly approaching vehicle.